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Walter Gerboth Award

The Walter Gerboth Award was established in 1984 by the Music Library Association in memory of its Past President and Honorary Member Walter Gerboth. Walter Gerboth was a librarian, teacher, mentor, a leader in the Music Library Association, and a pathmaker in music librarianship. The award is made to individuals in the first five years of their library careers (professional, career paraprofessional, or independent researchers within five years of MLS/equivalent) to support research-in-progress in music or music librarianship. If an award is offered, applicants must be MLA members in good standing in order to accept. Calls for applications are issued in the spring. Awards are announced each year at the MLA Annual meeting.

Walter Gerboth (1925–1984) was Head of the Music Library and Professor in the Department of Music at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He was instrumental in the development of what became the MARC format for machine readable cataloging of music. Active in MLA, Walter served as MLA President from 1969 to 1972, as a member-at-large on the board of directors, and chaired many of MLA committees. Walter also created many of MLA's serial publications. The Music Cataloging Bulletin was his idea, as were the MLA Index and Bibliography Series and the MLA Newsletter.

Of the many accomplishments for which Walter was most loved and admired, among the most important was his role as a mentor, initially to individuals, but ultimately to the profession of music librarianship itself. As a result of his encouragement, many of his students at Brooklyn College became music librarians. At annual MLA meetings he always acquainted himself with the newest members and saw to it that they were given responsibilities for MLA projects and committee assignments. In recognition of his stature in the profession, Walter was posthumously awarded MLA's highest honor, the 1985 MLA Citation.

The Walter Gerboth Fund, endowed by Janice Gerboth and the contributions of hundreds of MLA members, supports the Walter Gerboth Award. Few music librarians work in institutions that encourage them to conduct research by providing release time or subsidy. The Walter Gerboth Award enables MLA to recognize promising work by its newer members (a group to which Walter Gerboth gave special encouragement), to support scholarship in music bibliography and librarianship, and to honor the memory of one of MLA's most distinguished and loved members.

The application deadline for the 2017 award of Friday, July 15, 2016 has passed; submissions are currently closed. The call for submissions for the next award cycle will be posted in Spring of 2017. Award recipients will be notified in advance of the registration deadline for the following annual MLA meeting. Please contact the committee chair, Rebecca Littman, with any inquiries.

The following were required materials for applications due in 2016 and are included for reference purposes. Documentation and award amount are subject to change in future award cycles.

A detailed total budget, specifying the amount of funding requested from MLA (to a maximum of $1475) and its purpose (capital purchases are not eligible). Indicate any other sources of funding you may have already secured.

Two letters of recommendation—one for the project and one for yourself

A curriculum vita

Names and contact information for two additional references

Past recipients and projects

Year

Recipient

Publication

2017

No award given

2016

Dr. Sonia Archer-Capuzzo

Constructing a Biography of Lev Aronson

2015

[award schedule adjustment]

2014

No award given

2013

Jessica Nay

The development of a catalog to the words of Ferdinand Praeger

2012

Bonnie E. (Beth) Fleming

A biography of visionary arts patron Betty Freeman

2011

Anna E. Kijas

A bio-bibliography of pianist and composer Teresa Carreño

2010

Mac Nelson

The Varga legacy: an oral history

2009

Mark Puente

The development of a Music Library Association personnel characteristics survey

2008

Kristine Nelsen

A study of the working musicians of Las Vegas showrooms and lounges from the 1950s through the 1970s

2007

Michelle Lynn Oswell

A database for the English lute song from 1597-1622

2006

Christopher Mehrens

An investigation of American music criticism sources in the Library of Congress

2005

No award given

2004

D.J. Hoek

An updated compilation of Arthur Wenk’s Analyses of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Music

The Music Library Association is the
professional association for music
libraries and librarianship in the United
States. Founded in 1931, it has an
international membership of librarians,
musicians, scholars, educators, and
members of the book and music trades.
Complementing the Association’s national
and international activities are eleven
regional chapters that carry out its
programs on the local level.